A team led by Associate Professor Chen Chuang from Wuhan University’s Renmin Hospital, in collaboration with Professor Li Wei from the university’s School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, has developed a mussel-inspired biphasic long-acting levothyroxine microneedle patch for the treatment of hypothyroidism.

Their research, Mussel-inspired biphasic microneedle patch for long-acting hypothyroidism treatment, published in Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, marks a significant shift in hypothyroidism treatment from the conventional "daily oral intake" to a novel "once-a-week, self-administered, minimally invasive" approach.

The current daily oral administration method has several drawbacks, including absorption interference, difficulties in administration for specific populations, and poor long-term adherence.

The mussel-inspired biphasic LT₄ microneedle patch features a core design that includes short-term adhesion for intradermal deposition, slow dissolution and release, and adaptation to skin movement without detachment, achieving a triad of secure adhesion, effective delivery, and long-lasting effect.

The patch's dual-phase structure is tailored to match skin properties, with the needle tips made of a soluble medical matrix that penetrates the stratum corneum to deposit the drug into the superficial dermis, avoiding gastrointestinal absorption interference and hepatic first-pass effects.

Experimental results demonstrated that a single application of the patch in hypothyroid rat models maintained effective blood drug concentration for six days, with bioavailability comparable to intravenous injection.

In a trial involving 13 healthy volunteers, the patch achieved a 97.3 percent success rate in application and an 87.0 percent drug delivery efficiency, with over 70 percent of participants preferring the microneedle patch over oral administration.

The team also plans to optimize the drug-loading gradient and individualize treatment plans to accelerate the translation of these findings into practice.